Hey everyone, Red Alert 3 is now available for pre-order on Xbox 360. Red Alert was one of the first computer games I ever played, and the first RTS game I played. The entire Command & Conquer franchise is good, but Red Alert has been my favorite. In my opinion, the wait between the Red Alert 2 expansion Yuri's Revenge and this upcoming release was far too long. Thankfully, I managed to finally get my hands on a beta key about a month ago. The graphics are much improved over the previous games, and the menus are drastically different from before. You can get an idea from the screenshot of the opening screen I put in this post, but the best way to describe them is... cartoony. The game itself is largely the same in terms of dynamics and what not, which I am very happy about. All the great units are still there, like good old Tanya who I'm sure you all wanted to see, along with some new ones. One of my favorite new units has to be the bears, which are essentially the Soviets answer to dogs. Sadly, the beta is online only and there are only three maps available for play. The online play is good fun, like before, but the people sometimes aren't, like before. The other players frequently quit at the most annoying times possible. Because of that I have not been able to play many drawn out games or try out all of the units, so I'm not too sure about the subtle differences. The two that I have noticed are that there are vehicles besides MCVs that unpack and allow you to build off them, and the process of laying out building is somewhat different. Overall, the newest Red Alert is an improvement of an already great game that is similar without being the same game. It is new and different, but still the RTS we all know and love.